Grading

Final Grade

Class Participation

Your class participation grade is based on how seriously I think you are engaged with the class. As a class, we will develop a rubric to set reasonable expectations about class participation based on the following factors:

• timely attendance
• :engagement during class
• engagement and :communication outside of class
• :preparation for class meetings
• :preparation for course
• active contribution towards :your individual learning
• providing course feedback

I understand that some students are shy and have trouble speaking in class. Although speaking in class is an important and visible part of class participation, please note that only one of the factors above involves speaking in class, and you can participate in many other ways.

:x engagement

Engagement during class takes two main forms: class discussion and small group activities.

Class discussion includes asking and answering questions during lectures. Actively listening to others is an important part of participating in discussion. Class discussions should not be competitive, with students striving to answer the most questions correctly. I am much more interested in whether the class as a whole develops a dialog that moves our understanding forward, and listening to others and asking clarifying questions is essential to that goal. It’s really not important to me whether what you are saying is correct. I consider asking clarifying questions or suggesting answers that turn out to be wrong to be just as important as contributing new ideas and suggesting answers that turn out to be right.

Small group activities are done in groups with two to four classmates. I do observe your contributions to small group discussions, not just whole-class discussions, and consider those towards participation. My main criterion here is whether you are focused on the activity or start talking about out-of-class topics.

:x communication

Good communication means you:

• promptly respond to emails, messages, and discussion threads
• communicate with me in advance about any issues with attendance or assignment completion
• take initiative to ask for help with any potential problems

:x class preparation

Good class preparation means you come to class with all needed materials, honestly engage with the reading, and come to class with questions and/or ideas.

:x course preparation

Preparing for the course has two parts:

1. reading the course website carefully, including the info, policies, all assignments, and resource
2. setting up the apps and notifications as described on the technology guidelines page.

:x individual

Students come into this class with different backgrounds, and I’ll sometimes give you a resource to help you with a particular issue. For example, I might tell you that you are making comma errors and give you a resource to learn how to fix the problem. You actively contribute towards your individual learning if you use that resource and learn how to avoid those errors. If I see the same issues in your Paper 2 as your Paper 1, that suggests that you were not able to participate in your learning as much as you might have wanted to.

Exercises

Students will regularly submit short written exercises for class as a way to practice and reflect on writing skills.

Exercises are primarily graded based on the following criteria:

• Demonstrates that the student read the exercise assignment carefully (i.e., all guidelines are followed and all requested elements are included)
• Submitted by the deadline (or extended deadline if extension is requested)
• Reflects an honest attempt to do the exercise properly

If any of these three elements are missing, the exercise gets no credit (0 points). If they are all there, you get credit (1 point). If you have done an really extraordinary job on the exercise that stands above your peers, you may get “double credit” (2 points). The final grade for Exercises is calculated based on total points accumulated during the term.

Papers 1 and 2

Detailed grading criteria for for papers will be discussed in class and provided on the course website. Both papers will have students submit proposals, outlines, and/or drafts for instructor and peer feedback to make sure students have enough guidance to produce successful work. Students cannot skip paper assignments. All steps of each paper must be submitted at passing quality to pass the course.